Creates Demiurge

The One is not intelligent, he simply emanates.

have you already read the scriptures themselves? if not, the gnostic bible is the obvious answer.

the reality of the authorities / hypostasis of the rulers gives you a good skeleton for the typical gnostic 'drama'

We are Sophia. We cut ourselves off from the fullness when we entertained the idea of separation from source. The guilt and shame that accompanied this thought manifested itself as the demiurge and material world.
Self inflicted suffering persists until sophia snaps out if it. No one is to blame.

the monad is unknowable. gnosticism aside, why do people seem to think religious metaphysics are going to make sense to them? they are completely outside our experience or comprehension.

I started reading the Gnostic bible recently and I want to get through all the Nag Hammadi texts since if I understand correctly, not all of them are included in the Gnostic Bible.

>why do people seem to think religious metaphysics are going to make sense to them? they are completely outside our experience or comprehension.

Because thats just an assumption you're pulling out of your ass. If its outside our comprehension that has to be exhibited first

Question about the gnostic megamyth. Is Sophia at present distributed among man and can only be restored if all of man rejoins the pleroma or is she literally on earth wandering?

>parents named me Sophia
>meet a mother-daughter duo who are both named Sophia too
>become best friends with the daughter
>she convinces me to become a Gnostic like them
>meeting them changed my whole life
It feels so surreal. Certainly the biggest coincidence I've ever experienced.

shut the fuck up faggot

You should frankly jump off a bridge.

right. the nag hammadi texts are all freely available online afaik. many of the gnostic scriptures are opaque and focus on sayings, abstract metaphysics, and really heavy symbolism. for the core 'narrative' that you might draw on for a novel would be found either in The Reality of the Rulers, as I mentioned, or On the Origin of the World. those feature the principle characters you mention, along with others (adam, norea, zoe, etc.)

as for scholarly work, idk, of course elaine pagels has done much to popularize gnosticism, but she's pretty normie.

at the core of the gnostic worldview is gnosis, which is knowledge gained neither by revelation nor by scientific means. as in mainstream christianity, there is a kinship between a human being and the divine (the latter is 'in the image of god'), but the gnostics take this divine spark to be the seed of knowledge above the material realms. such knowledge is not beyond human comprehension precisely because the human animal is 'more than human.' christ, or some such savior figure, acts to awaken this capacity.

>as for scholarly work, idk, of course elaine pagels has done much to popularize gnosticism, but she's pretty normie.
pretty good description, I tried reading The Gnostic Gospels by her, and was disappointed that it wasn't really an analysis of the primary works themselves, but rather of historical circumstances surrounding them and how the Catholic Church suppressed Gnostic heresies, and also, as you say, her normie-like praise of Gnosticism for allowing women to take part in its rites (as if that were the most important thing) and for having some insights sort of somewhat similar to modern existentialism (eck!)

wrong, the monad is unknowable, sophia fell because she tried to know him, the divine spark is not absolute knowledge and furthermore the poster i was responding to was not using divine knowledge but human logic. maybe what i should have said is why would religious metaphysics make sense to human logic?

The idea is that nothing is worth doing, neither in and of itself nor for anything else. All personhood is refraction carried out relative to Self-reflection. Pleroma being irreducible and indestructible means modes of plurality like space and time have infinitely negative value. The only meaningful aspect of Evil that must be realized is that it is pointless. This makes the nebulous Christian or Hindu idea of free will very clear, also simultaneously more comforting and more terrifying. "We" as persons are persons for no reason, though a Creator can be ascertained where Nous refracts into Logos, this is Ontological Pareidolia. There is no Mind and no Good in that process and certainly none to be found beyond it given infinite freedom. Acting to the contrary is replicating this illusion on a smaller scale, actually being the Demiurge. Refraction is incidental to reflection, perpetuating the former is its own punishment. The irreducible particle of everything, Truth and Good itself and Truth in Good itself, is not such by contractual exemption from corruption but by its own immanence despite infinite corruption. Look the other way.

ah that makes sense more than just 'lol it just emanated out of me'

New Age bullshit. The individual is personally responsible for the insufficiencies of the universe.

really urges my demi desu

the key is not knowledge, but love

Gnostics don't want to admit this!

What was her fucking problem?

she was the first proud black woman who don't need no man. We're supposed to believe that Yaldabaoth is her edgy single-mother-raised son

>The idea is that nothing is worth doing, neither in and of itself nor for anything else
>The only meaningful aspect of Evil that must be realized is that it is pointless. This makes the nebulous Christian or Hindu idea of free will very clear, also simultaneously more comforting and more terrifying. "We" as persons are persons for no reason
>realized that it is pointless

i don't get why this isn't a more common thought in general

>tfw Gnosticism has undercurrents of spiritual egoism and lack of empathy in some of its more radical strains, flirting with antinatalism and treatment of other human beings as mere animals
>tfw classical christian upbringing cringes at this and wants God to be love
>tfw can't tell which of these competing impulses is the right way, my conscience is no guide here, nor is any empirical evidence
>tfw at the mercy of the Holy Spirit for inspiration, but He hasn't seen fit to enlighten me and it's not my place to demand anything of God
>tfw permanent spiritual malaise
>tfw can't tell the devil and God apart, for all I know Satan is taking me for a ruse cruise

yes

Is the guy who edited this autistic?

>can't tell the devil and God apart
Ya its disheartnening, growing up as a christian and then discovering that there are major sects within christianity that claim the god you've been worshipping is evil, which does make sense reading back thru the OT and thinking about the kind of god that could create and maintain a world like this.
But then like you say, maybe we are just deceived and satan's long con game has finally taken hold. and all this virtual simulation/ false reality talk coming out of the science community is just another tactic to get you to blaspheme god and damn yourself to HELL

>abstaining from bodily pleasures is most auspicious
>implying bodily pleasures are most desirable

What did they mean by this?

Light needs darkness to shine in.
t Boehme

Closest thing to a portrait of the Demiurge.

>Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."

fpbp

How is this nigga fits in Gnosticism?

this is actually thought to be a more accurate depiction of the demiurge